Moscow's government plans to ditch Microsoft email products on its PCs

By John Callaham
published

The city of Moscow's government has announced plans to replace some of the email software made by Microsoft on its PCs with software developed inside of Russia.

According to Bloomberg:

The city will initially replace Microsoft's Exchange Server and Outlook on 6,000 computers with an e-mail system installed by state-run carrier Rostelecom PJSC, Artem Yermolaev, head of information technology for Moscow, told reporters Tuesday. Moscow may expand deployment of the new software, developed by Russia's New Cloud Technologies, to as many as 600,000 computers and servers, and may also consider replacing Windows and Office, Yermolaev said.

This move echoes an overall effort by Russian president Vladimir Putin to use PC software created domestically due to security concerns about using products developed in foreign countries.

"We want the money of taxpayers and state-run firms to be primarily spent on local software," Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov told reporters. From 2017, government entities including the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, General Prosecutor's Office and Audit Chamber "will be tightening their grip" on state institutions that aren't switching to domestic alternatives, he said.

Microsoft has not commented on Moscow's decision to use its own software instead of Exchange Server and Outlook.

John Callaham
John Callaham
50 Comments
  • Nice.
  • Not nice.
  • yeah, no American spying in Russia. In Russia only the KGB can spy
  • Putin feels like his beloved Trump is on the losing side, so he decided to invest money on the tech and software made by those close to him most likely
  • They might replace Windows with Linux.
    MS Office to LibreOffice
    And other open source alternatives.
  • Can someone say- drop in the ocean
  • What's wrong with national pride
  • They will have a great firewall of Russia soon enough!
  • exactly.....also,  why would Russia want Microsoft data mining them!
  • Msft is not Google.
  • No they are not...they are worse.  Msft is data mining kings now!
  • it will be Russia data mining themselves instead
  • Understandable, the governments from USA and EU countries are f_ing up the relationship.
  • I really agree with you, but a lot if people do not se it or understand it. US and EU are big troublemakers.
  • You say that in the very week Russia wipes out a UN aid convoy, and decimates Allepo.
    It's also pretty much a certainty that Russian forces took down that Malaysian Airlines flight over the Ukraine. Oh, and I remember Putin denying Russian forces were on the ground in the Crimea....whilst his henchman were already on camera strutting their stuff.
    Putin has also squirreled away masses of Russian wealth, and is allowing the rights of minorities to be sidelined. Add in the removal of any kind of impartial press, and you have yourself a dictatorship in all but name.
    But yes, you glorify Russia.
  • Most of the events you're pointing out are made/played up by media. Also nobody glorified anything, It's just that I am sure that Merkel, Obama and the likes aren't telling us the whole story, so they're scum to me.
  • Good to not trust any of the governments. But to be clear, governments trying to monitor people to get an advance lead on terrorist activity is radically different from a government that tries to control its population. I disagree with the US government watching us, because I think freedom from government is more important than the possible added safety from that monitoring, so I'm with you on that. But there is a HUGE, HUGE difference between that and Putin's use of the government apparatus to increase his power and personal wealth.
  • To me it seams that governments are seeking for conflicts in order to play in the hands of their financial backers, weather by threatening the people of their respective countries or someone else. This game of war and money has to stop!
  • Good to have alternatives... But are those software as feature rush as Microsoft products?
  • Possibly not but if they get the job done cheaper, and keeps money inside their own economy then it won't really matter if it doesn't have every single feature I suppose
  • If it was either cheaper or better they wouldn't have to justify the purchase with a "buy domestic" excuse. They would simply say it was cheaper and/or better.
  • I guess that's part of the reason they are initially switching relatively few machines, to actually test if it is better or cheaper.
  • As long as they remain compatible they will be happy I guess
  • They are replacing our"spyware" with their own. Just kidding.
  • nope, Putin announced to renew KGB. If you dont know what it is, check Wiki
  • If they want to ditch emails they should give Hillary a call. On a serious note, this is perfectly understandable. Actually, it's just weird more governments don't do this and willfuly rely on foreign corporations to keep their information "secure".
  • Yeah, especially the bigger countries should benefit from having their own services and software in place, most of the users don't require much from their email service (basic email features + calendar covers basically 99%).
  • Hmmm. Security concerns trumping innovation and high performance. At this point every major government will toe the same line.
  • Well Office performance and stability has downgraded recently. I suppose letting in-house QA's go affects all divisions.
  • Russian email software will spam itself with malware/spyware, Notes from nigerian princes and ****** ads.
  • You really think that SPAM all comes from Russia?  Ever heard of spoofing IP's and email addresses?
  • Honestly, it's kinda weird that they were using Outlook in the first place. We hear about cyber-warfare and NSA backdoors all the time, after all, and it isn't exactly a new thing.
  • Truth is we don't know how secure the systems are, I bet the NSA has hundreds of back doors into all sorts of software and the makers don't even know about them. Protectionism and nationalism are the result of a poisonous media selling agendas based on fear. We need more openess, understanding and tolerence. What's sad is that 50% of what Trump says are lies (fact) and similar amount of Americans believe his BS. Anyways...rant over lol
  • And the other 50% was deleted by Clinton! :-o lol
  • I'm not bothered or surprised by such a strategy. However, I suspect they are replacing these software systems with inferior products. Just not so inferior that they couldn't justify doing so. The stuff has finally been developed enough to be taken seriously as an alternative. In fact, THE fact that the Russian Government has been a Microsoft House up until now, says everything. If their stuff is really really good, it would likely be available someday to compete.  
  • Lol, they are going crazy!
  • Russians and emails. Not good bed fellows.
  • I didn't know they had the internet.
  • I am going to bet that replacement software will be inferior. There really is not a lot of things that can compare to Exchange, and Microsoft Office is the standard for a reason. This will cost them in the long run.
  • So this is only in Moscow, and not the rest of Russia...
  • If Russia remove Windows, i will remove Kaspersky in all my customers pc....
    And this is not a small number! Hope idiots politicians will read this
  • Bahahah....
    Just go to bed...you'll have forgotten about this silly threat within a day.
  • I don't forget, my dear..
  • Thunderbird lulz!
  • They're contractor is just rebranding Exchange online hahaha
  • In mother Russia, you don't send email. email sends you!
  • In Russia, email reads you!
  • In Mother Russia email send you to gulag.
  • Sounds like a good idea till it's not.
  • It doesn't matter who you use for your email when the NSA is your ISP.  Good luck, Earth.